The shady lives of CR

Believe it or not, Cedar Rapids has a shady part of town. It is sad to know that there is parts of town where the income is lower, and the poverty rate is higher. It is a vicious circle that keeps continueing for the people in these neighborhoods. I wish that it was not as hard for someone to leave the ghetto.


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A girl once told me that, "Poverty breeds poverty." It is really a understandable, yet awful, concept. Sometimes once you are in the ghetto, you cannot leave. There are many reasons why they are unable to leave, from family matters to just a lack of any sort of financial aid.

They are tied to this area that they call their home. The most common time for leaving your 'homeland' is leaving for college. That is just not possible. Just the amount of wealth in these areas is just too low for them to support their family alone, so multiple people in the family get jobs, and they would not be able to leave and leave the family unsupported. That is why some turn to the life of hustling. Everyday they are hustling. Hustling is just getting money by any means in any kind of shady way.

Gangs arise. Not for the sake of violence or hate, merely out of these boys need for security. That is why they join. The boys feel that there is no way out, so they might as well have people that will support him and maybe even die for him. In the absense of a family, a gang can take its place. And yet the typical view of a gang is a hustling, group of crime commiting violent boys. They take on the need to continue this view and do as what they think a gang does. And the gangs fight, why? Over turf, reputation. Nothing of value. Gangs are stupid.

So how do the people of these shady areas get out of these areas? Honestly, I have no idea. It is something that would be ten times harder then I will possibly ever do. Maybe that is why I am lucky.